


New Bug-innings

by HapaxLegomenon



Series: The Adventures of Sousuke and The Beetle [5]
Category: Free!
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bugs & Insects, Gen, Pets, Pyunsuke is adorable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-09
Updated: 2016-09-09
Packaged: 2018-08-14 03:03:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7996192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HapaxLegomenon/pseuds/HapaxLegomenon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sousuke makes a difficult decision.</p><p>Edit and re-post from SASO2016 BR3</p>
            </blockquote>





	New Bug-innings

**Author's Note:**

> It just wouldn't be SASO for me without at least one SouPyun fill.
> 
> Enjoy.
> 
> Edited slightly and re-posted from an entry written for the SASO 2016 Bonus Round 3: Gift Tags.

“So. Moving back home tomorrow, huh.” Rin leans in the doorway, tapping out an irregular rhythm on the frame. The room is nearly empty, all of their books and clothes packed away and cleared out. There’s just a few things left -- a handful of pencils and a notebook on Rin’s desk, two pairs of shoes, their swim bags. Sousuke’s bedding, and a backpack with a change of clothes and toiletries. Two tubes holding rolled diplomas.  
  
And Pyunsuke, napping contentedly in his terrarium under the window. His carapace gleams gold in an afternoon sunbeam.  
  
Rin sniffles.  
  
“Don’t do that,” Sousuke says immediately, awkward and uncomfortable in the face of his best friend’s emotions. He hears Rin step into the room, and without looking, he holds out his arm. Rin unabashedly tucks himself under Sousuke’s armpit and leans against his good shoulder.  
  
“Gonna be weird,” Rin mumbles, “not seeing you every day. Again.”  
  
Sousuke grunts in agreement, but he isn’t looking at Rin.  
  
Pyunsuke shifts on his logs, flicking his wings out experimentally and shuffling towards the open top of the old fish tank. He gives his antennae a decisive shake and makes his puttering way down the side of the terrarium, across the carpeted floor, and up Sousuke’s pant leg. He ends up on the front of Sousuke’s shirt, antennae feathered across Rin’s cheek.  
  
“Hey buddy. I’m gonna miss you, too, believe it or not. Take care of this big idiot for me, willya?” Rin runs his fingernail gently down Pyunsuke’s abdomen.  
  
Sousuke’s stomach ties itself into a knot and his chest feels cold and tight. He focuses on breathing.  
  
“How are you getting him back to your parents’ place?”  
  
“I’m not.”  
  
His voice is low, quiet, but the words ring out like a bell and echo in the mostly-empty room. Rin shifts and pulls away, and Sousuke lets his arm fall limp at his side. He can feel Rin staring at him, can imagine his expression all too clearly -- wide eyes, raised eyebrows, mouth slightly open. He doesn’t look, staring instead at the terrarium. It needs to be cleaned. There’s dirt and fruit flung across the glass, and the gel food is drying and cracked around the edges.  
  
“But --”  
  
“I can’t take him home with me,” Sousuke interrupts. “I’m giving him back to Momo.”  
  
Saying the words out loud, for the first time, make it feel final, no matter how long Sousuke has been planning this. He willfully ignores the sick feeling in his stomach and the pressure behind his nose and the gentle scritching sounds as Pyunsuke walks back and forth across his collarbones.  
  
This is the best decision. It’s the one he has to make.  
  
“Sousuke...”  
  
“Rin.” He keeps his voice flat. Rin sighs.  
  
\--  
  
The terrarium has a new home down the hallway. The room is set up the same, and the terrarium is in the same place, under the window. There’s no real difference, other than the piles of clothes all over the floor and the half-eaten granola bar on one of the desks and the ream of loose papers scattered around the room. Pyunsuke should be happy here. There’s no reason he wouldn’t be, not when he’d grown from a larva in the same room. Momo is a little less excited than Sousuke had assumed he would be, though, and even though Nitori eyes the terrarium with a mix of resignation and apprehension, his expressive face is concerned and empathetic. Sousuke doesn’t think about it.  
  
Pyunsuke will be well taken care of. That’s what matters.  
  
Sousuke holds his hand up to his shoulder, and Pyunsuke crawls happily onto his fingertips and marches back and forth across his palm. His antennae tickle, when he tastes Sousuke’s skin and whirs his wings. Sousuke holds him up at eye level and watches him for a moment.  
  
“Bye, buddy,” he says quietly. He hears Nitori try to stifle a shaky breath behind him, and he runs his fingers down Pyunsuke’s carapace. Then, he tips the beetle into Momo’s hands and walks out of the room without a second glance.  
  
\--  
  
Rin visits from Tokyo in the fall, just before Sousuke’s birthday.  
  
“I need to make sure you’re taking care of your shoulder,” Rin says, but Sousuke catches him watching with careful, worried expressions even after reporting that his physical therapy is going well. He hates being watched.  
  
“You alright?” Rin asks, for the umpteenth time, and Sousuke thinks about punching him. “You’ve been acting… weird. For months.”  
  
Sousuke grumbles something vague and inarticulate and jams his hands in his pockets.  
  
Rin is still staring at him. There’s something a little bit sad in his eyes and it makes the same emotion bubble up around Sousuke’s lungs. He ignores it. He’s getting very good at ignoring his feelings, lately.  
  
“You miss him,” Rin finally says.  
  
“Shut up.”  
  
“Idiot.”  
  
“I said shut up!” he yells, grabbing the front of Rin’s collar and shoving him against the wall. The bubbling has become a boiling, now, and it fills his head and chokes him until he takes a step back and gasps for air. Rin reaches out to rub his shoulder -- his good shoulder -- but Sousuke jerks away and manages to say, “I’m going for a run,” before he turns and does just that.  
  
When he returns home, sweaty and feeling more than a little stupid, Rin is waiting.  
  
“I have something for you,” he says. “It’s in your room.”  
  
Underneath Sousuke’s window, there’s a large terrarium, situated with a heat lamp and already filled with mulch and sticks and with packets of gel food and a spray bottle piled in a little heap beside it. Sousuke’s throat closes up and he tries to swallow around it. The anger spikes again.  
  
“I don’t want another _fucking_ beetle,” he practically snarls.  
  
Rin rolls his eyes. “You’re not _getting_ another beetle. Ai’s coming down tomorrow.”  
  
Sousuke refuses to consider what that means. He doesn’t think about it. He does not acknowledge the little spark of hopefulness. He stares at the terrarium and plans where he’d put a food dish, where he’d put a big log, which of the littler twigs he’d remove.  
  
Rin continues, his eyes narrowing into that familiar, shark-like grin. “Apparently, Pyunsuke doesn’t like living with him and Momo much. Ai says he’s been sulking. I think he’s probably just disgusted by their dirty room, personally. But Momo’s concerned for his well-being. Thought that he might be better off with a little more space.”  
  
After Rin leaves, Sousuke spends a few hours methodically going over the new terrarium. It’s larger than his old one, more appropriately shaped. He adjusts the heat lamp, mists the mulch, and organizes the packets of food in an old shoebox with little sticky notes about supplemental fruits for each feed.  
  
\--  
  
Nitori arrives with Rin the next day, a jar clutched safely in his hands. The lid is perforated, and Sousuke can see a glint of shiny obsidian black and hear the eager clicking through the airholes.  
  
“We’ll leave you to it, then,” is all Rin says, grinning widely as Sousuke takes the jar.  
  
He unscrews the top and feels like a weight is being removed from his chest at the same time.  
  
Pyunsuke comes rocketing out of the jar, turns three frantic laps around Sousuke’s head, and then flies straight for his face. Sousuke ducks a little, so that Pyunsuke lands in his hair instead of poking his eyes out. Pyunsuke is clicking his mandibles furiously, his antennae waving frantically back and forth, and he crawls at speed down Sousuke’s ear to spin circles on his shoulder.  
  
It’s natural as anything for Sousuke to raise a hand and cup it around his shoulder. Pyunsuke vibrates against his palm.  
  
“Missed you too,” he says, and he feels himself grin. Pyunsuke gnaws lightly on his fingernail, and then hangs there when Sousuke moves his hand away for a better look. Pyunsuke waves his antennae and Sousuke brushes his thumb along the underside of his carapace. “Would you like to see your new home? Rin doesn’t really know what he’s doing, but I fixed it up for you...”  
  
Sousuke doesn’t sleep much, that night. He’s too busy with watching Pyunsuke exploring his bedroom. But that’s alright. He still feels better than he has in a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> Talk fandom to me on Twitter at [@paxlegomenon](https://twitter.com/paxlegomenon).


End file.
